Thursday, January 20, 2011

Indian farmers welcome Exit of ‘Peepli Live’ from Oscar

Nagpur-21st January 2011

The rejection of India’s official entry to the Oscars in the best foreign language film category, Peepli live must have disappointed Amir khan and his team but it wasmatter celebration in dying field farm suicide hit vidarbha where farm widows have welcomed exist “Peepli Live”, which is now out of the race as the movie failed to reach the final list of nine films.

‘Lastly Oscar academy has respected sentiments of thousands of vidarbha farm widows by not selecting the “Peepli Live”,in the final list of nine films.

Earlier Vidarbha Jan Andolan Samiti (VJAS), a farmers’ advocacy group in Vidarbha region of Maharashtra, has objected to the selection of Aamir Khan’s “Peepli Live” as India’s official entry for the Oscars calling it as a “black comedy”. it is a wrong representation of the misery of the family members of farmers who committed suicide

“Rejection of “Peepli Live” will certainly avoid further the wrong projection of Indian agrarian crisis where around 200,000 farmers committed suicide in the last decade. The basic theme and script of the film is a satire on this serious issue. It would be absolutely wrong to say that farmers are committing suicide for compensation,” said Kishor Tiwari, president of VJAS after rejection of film from Oscar.

Vidarbha farmers and widows had Aug 15 protested the storyline of the film and burnt effigy of Amir Khan too .

“The farmers in any region of India commit suicide due to the wrong policies of the government, not because family members can live off the compensation they would get,” Vidarbha Jan Andolan Samiti (VJAS) president Kishor Tiwari added.

The film shows how the protagonist of the film (Natha) decides to commit suicide as he is about to lose his plot of land because he is unable to pay back the bank loan. The protagonist’s brother encourages Natha to commit suicide so that his family can live off the compensation money.

“People all over would have watch films and hence would have followed and believed in some storylines. Today when I am fighting to get compensation for 40,000 farmers’ widows, this movie sends out a wrong message. The farmers committed suicide due to several problems such as being unable to pay back the loans, infertile lands and continued sub-division of family owned plots of land, and not because they wanted their wives or family members to get compensation,” Tiwari said.

The state government is visibly perturbed over the sudden spurt in farmers’ suicides in Vidarbha after 26 farmers killed themselves this month with two more suicides reported in the last 24 hours.

According to reports reaching here on Tuesday, Prabhakar Kuche (68) of Kher-Talegaon village in Amravati and Narayan Bharti (52), Kolhi in Buldhana district, both cotton growers, were depressed due to crop failure following untimely rains. They could not repay the loans borrowed from cooperative banks and moneylenders. Both swallowed pesticides to end their lives, reports said.

Sanjay Deshmukh, the collector of Yavatmal district that witnessed 308 farmers’ suicide last year and eight more so far this year, admitted that the situation was volatile as it was the third consecutive year when crop failed because of natural calamities.

However, he felt that the agrarian crisis was not the lone reason for the drastic step. "There are other reasons like healthcare and marriage of eligible daughters," he said. The unabated trend of farmers committing suicide due to crop failure and indebtedness needs an in-depth study, he pointed out.

He also claimed that incidents of suicides decreased in comparison to previous years. In Yavatmal district, one of the worst hit districts of the region, where 325 farmers ended their lives because of the agrarian crisis in 2009, the figure was 308 last year, he added.

Kishore Tiwari of Vidarbha Janandolan Samiti reiterated that there was an urgent need for ensuring food security for the distressed farmers. "VJAS has been advocating such schemes for the poor farmers to stop suicides for the last several years. But the government seems to be very casual in this regard," he rued.

Mohan Jadhav, another leader of a pressure group of farmers of the region, urged the government to assure the distressed farmers by providing guarantees that even defaulters would get fresh loans in the coming rabi and kharif seasons. Such measures can prevent farmer suicides in coming days, he pointed out.

Thursday, January 6, 2011

For Maharashtra Government, Rs1,000cr = Rs216cr-

Mockary of farm relief package –TIMES OF INDIA

Ashish Roy, TNN, Jan 7, 2011, 05.58am IST

NAGPUR: The cat is finally out of the bag. The state government had announced aRs1,000 crore relief package for farmers affected by unseasonal rains during the winter session of state legislature in the city with much fanfare. However, it had refused to provide the break up even after repeated demands by the Opposition and media. The reason is now clear. The government would actually provide only Rs216 crore for this year's damage.

The government had no intention of paying the whole amount from its pocket. Soon after the session was over, chief minister Prithviraj Chavan along with prominent leaders of Maharashtra rushed to Delhi and managed to get Rs600 crore from centre. The government created an impression that this amount was in addition toRs1,000 crore package announced. However, Vidarbha's ministers – Shivajirao Moghe, Anil Deshmukh, Nitin Raut and Rajendra Mulak -- admitted during a press conference on Thursday that Rs1,000 crore was inclusive of Rs600 crore central grant. Of the Rs400 crore state government share, Rs184 crore is interest waiver amount of grape farmers announced last year.

This means farmers will get only Rs 216 crore from Democratic Front (DF) government for this year's damage. State president of BJP Sudhir Mungantiwar termed it a cruel joke on farmers. "The government created an impression that farmers would get Rs1,600 crore compensation. Now, we come to know that it will spend only Rs216 crore. No wonder farmers continue to commit suicide. The government should resign over this shameful deception," he said. Farm activist Kishor Tiwari demanded that all ministers of Vidarbha should resign over this. "The government message is loud and clear – Vidarbha will not get anything. What is the use of these ministers continuing in government," he asked.

Western Mahaharashtra will corner funds

The lack of seriousness on the part of state government in tacking the farm crisis has come to the fore. Even after announcing the packages with much fanfare during the winter assembly session and later after meeting the PM, the state would in effect only be shelling out Rs 216 crore for the crisis-ridden farmers. Farm activist Kishor Tiwari said that most of the money would go to supporters of Western Maharashtra's overlords. He claimed that crop in 5.5 lakh hectares was damaged for which Rs 2,000 crore was required. "The whole state requires around Rs5,000 crore.

Against that, the government has allocated very little," he said. MPCC chief Manikrao Thakre had stressed during the recent winter session that no package could be declared by including planned expenditure amount in it. However, most government relief packages violate this rule. The government had announced a Rs 10,000 crore Vidarbha development package in December 2009. This was nothing but Vidarbha's share of funds as per Governor's formula.

Tuesday, January 4, 2011

Seven more farmers commit suicide

T O Abraham, Jan 5, 2011, 01.35am IST

YAVATMAL: Seven more debt ridden farmers from Vidarbha committed suicide during the first three days of the new year. Of these, three ended their lives in Yavatmal district, the epicentre of the region's agrarian crisis.

Prakash Pawar of Ajanti village, Rahul Karthode of Kelzara village and Dhrupatabai Rathod of Bhamb village of Mahagaon tehsil, all from Yavatmal district, and Ravindra Kondane of Akola, Motiram Mohurle of Wardha, Kalamkar Sawarbandhe of Bhandara and Ghotu Jabhorkar of Amravati are the names of the deceased.

The latest suicide was that of Dhrupatabai Rathod, who owned four acres of farm and owed Rs 35,000 loan dues to Fulsavangi-based Central Bank. Rathod was upset due to the damages caused to the cotton crops in her field due to unseasonal rains. On Monday afternoon, the distressed woman left home and did not return until late evening. Her family members launched a search and her body was later found in their farm. She had consumed pesticide to end her life. She was left behind her husband, two sons and others to mourn her death.

Tiwari said that despite the tall claim of bumper crops of cotton and comparatively higher price, the suicide spree continues, indicating that the government has failed to evolve effective measures to address the problem. He also reiterated his earlier demand for opening government procurement centres for tur to ensure MSP and incentives. In fact, private traders and their touts are active in the region before the harvest of tur and they are set to exploit the needy farmers, he added.